[7] To end its critical stance against the government, the administration of Mexican President Luis Echeverría (1970–1976) channeled money to the newspaper's employees to stage a coup against Scherer García.
The newspaper was founded in the home of Mexican politician Manuel Moreno Sánchez (es) in Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico City, and had its first offices there.
[12][13] It later moved its offices to Retorno de Corregio 12 street in the Noche Buena neighborhood in Benito Juárez, Mexico City.
According to the declaration, the first incident that led to Unomásuno's creation occurred on 8 July 1976, when some Excélsior employees staged a coup against it after being paid by Echeverría's administration.
However, as they began to specialize in certain investigative topics, Unomásuno brought its readers a diversity and professionalism that were not present in the Mexican press of the time.
[12] They were angry because they believed Unomásuno's management had abused the good faith of its employees, had moved far from its editorial roots, that the board of directors was too conservative, and it had anti-union tendencies.
[c][25] Unomásuno's defectors, headed by journalists Payán, Lira Saade, Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, Héctor Aguilar Camín, and Ricardo Alemán, formed a competing daily newspaper known as La Jornada on 19 September 1984.
[26][28] During the administration of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–1994), the government tried to exercise its power against Unomásuno and other media outlets after a contested general election.
[29] Salinas de Gortari reportedly grew angry with these articles and pressured Unomásuno to pay hefty governmental fines for tax evasion.
Unomásuno recognized it was unable to pay them, and several financiers close to the PRI bought corporate stock and developed a plan to help refinance the newspaper.
[32] According to figures from the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) and the Paper Producer and Importer (PIPSA), Unomásuno owed the government MXN$40 million in taxes.
He was a seasoned political reporter, an associate of PRI politician Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, and a close friend of Salinas de Gortari.
However, by the end of the year, rumors spread that Gutiérrez Rodríguez and Salinas de Gotari had worked together and pressured Becerra Acosta to step down from his post.
[8] La Jornada supported Cárdenas' political campaigns, the rebellion of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the early 1990s, and stood against other ideas promoted by the PRI government it believed were regressing Mexico, like neoliberalism.
Several reporters analyzed articles printed by the newspaper and tried to show Gutiérrez Rodríguez their critical attitudes towards the Salinas de Gotari administration had changed.
They showed him that in one of its recent articles, Unomásuno stated that in the first 100 days of the Salinas de Gortari administration, Mexico had a strong government and a clear sense of direction.
[14][46] In May 2002, Unomásuno fired 70 employees, including four of its founders: Christa Cowrie, Jorge Reyes Estrada, Fernando Belmont Acero, and Patricia Cardona.
[14] The Libien family agreed to take care of Unomásuno's debt of MXN$150 million, as well as guarantee the future of the newspaper and the collective agreement with its employees.
On 1 December 2002, according to six Unomásuno reporters,[f] Libien told his employees they were only allowed to write about public figures and businesses willing to pay the newspaper to get coverage in the media.
[51][57] Alonso Coratella spoke to the press on 3 December and said he was not accountable for the new management decisions, and justified the acquisition by saying the newspaper was going through financial difficulties and needed external investment.
[58] On 6 December, employees claimed management told them not to write negative articles about Fox, his wife Martha Sahagún, and SHCP head Francisco Gil Díaz.
[61] On 18 December, Unomásuno employees marched to the Monumento a la Revolución landmark, at the Secretariat of the Interior offices, and in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square.
[65] By 2005, Unomásuno's quality and readership had declined, in large part due to its articles being characterized as having a cult of personality, being yellow journalism, or for reporting gossip short-stories as factual accounts.
[67][68] According to the report, Libien Tella provided assistance to Los Cuinis, a drug cartel based in Jalisco, and its former leader Abigael González Valencia.
[67] As a result of the designation, Libien Tella and Unomásuno's assets were frozen in the United States,[72][73] and U.S. citizens were prohibited from engaging in business transactions with them.
[74] In 2007, González Valencia granted Libien Tella power of attorney over his Guadalajara-based investment group Valgo Grupo de Inversión.
[79][80] He invited U.S. officials to closely examine Unomásuno and the rest of his businesses, and stated that his newspapers had been critical of drug trafficking groups, including Los Cuinis and the CJNG, for years.
When Libien Tella issued his version of the story to the public regarding the Kingpin Act sanction, he mentioned that the government wanted to take away Unomásuno's name and alluded to this.
[90] Libien Kaui issued a writ of amparo to a State of Mexico appeals court that same day he was arrested to prevent any legal procedures that led to his detention from taking place.
[91] The federal judge stated that his potential release was permitted by Mexican law because tax fraud charges in Mexico are not considered serious in nature.